As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, state-of-the-art, fully-automated immunoassay analyzers measure chemical constituents of interest within a multiplicity of assays, e.g., body fluids, blood, serum, plasma, urine, and the like. The analyzers process a multiplicity of immunoassays that require separation of chemical constituents of interest, which, typically, are bound to component-selective particles, from free or unbound components in the assay. Automation of the immunoassay process lowers cost, primarily by increasing the throughput of assay reaction mixtures and by reducing the number of personnel required to perform analyses and steps that, heretofore, were performed manually.
However, as advantageous as that may be for some users, the state-of-the-art of fully-automated immunoassay analyzers has reached a level that makes the devices prohibitively expensive especially for emerging markets that cannot afford top-of-the-line analyzers. Therefore, to make analyzers more affordable, it would be desirable to reduce the cost by reducing the level of automation and by incorporating fewer and simpler mechanisms.